What is the Children and Young People’s Charter
Improving the involvement of children and young people is a key priority for the Child Protection Committee (CPC). The Children at Risk of Harm Inspection 2021 found that opportunities for children and young people at risk of harm to share their views and influence policy, planning and service delivery were limited. We took on board the need to improve in this area and have been working hard to progress this work. The Charter and accompanying resources are a result of our work and are the beginning of a longer term process to getting this right.
The Charter outlines what Young People told us was important to them and sets out five ways Dundee’s children and young people want to be supported.
Representing the voices of Dundee children and young people and reflecting what they say is most important to them the charter has five key statements:
- Help us to feel safe;
- listen to and empower us to have a voice;
- give us choice;
- work with us and include us; and
- help us to trust you and others.
How did we develop the Charter?
The first thing we did was speak to young people about what they thought was important for the CPC to understand and to improve. We met with a group if care experienced young people, who had also been through child protection processes, and over pizza we talked about their stories and what had or hadn’t been positive for them.
Since meeting with the original group, we then established links with the champions groups at a Dundee school and have met with them regularly as we have developed the charter and the accompanying framework and resource pack. This group reviewed the charter and agreed that we had captured the right principles. They have then gone on to develop a set of cards which can be used with groups of young people as well as staff, to raise awareness of the principles and think about how they might be applied in real life situations.
We are hugely grateful to all the young people who have been instrumental in developing the charter and framework and have sought to be absolutely aligned to all the things they have told us.
For more information and to see the card pack created please contact: sophie.gwyther@dundeecity.gov.uk
